Dumfriesshire

County

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Background Information

Number of voters:

50-70

Elections

DateCandidate
10 Feb. 1715SIR WILLIAM JOHNSTONE
6 Apr. 1722CHARLES ARESKINE
2 July 1725ARESKINE re-elected after appointment to office
31 Aug. 1727CHARLES ARESKINE
18 May 1734CHARLES ARESKINE
 Alexander Fergusson
4 Aug. 1737ARESKINE re-elected after appointment to office
4 June 1741SIR JOHN DOUGLAS
 Matthew Sharp
20 July 1747LORD CHARLES DOUGLAS

Main Article

The chief interests in Dumfriesshire were those of the dukes of Queensberry, its hereditary sheriffs,and of the marquesses of Annandale. In 1715 Sir William Johnstone, a government supporter and a member of a junior branch of the Annandale family, was returned. He was succeeded in 1722 by Charles Areskine, on the joint Queensberry-Annandale interests.1 In 1734 Queensberry, who had gone into opposition, wrote ‘I have no doubt of carrying my point in the shire’, but Areskine succeeded in getting himself elected against the Duke’s candidate, who petitioned unsuccessfully.2 Queensberry regained control of the seat in 1741 and by 1747 was in sole control, the Annandale interest having lapsed through the insanity of the 3rd Marquess.

Author: J. M. Simpson

Notes

  • 1. More Culloden Pprs. iii. 66-69.
  • 2. HMC Polwarth, v. 87; CJ, xxii. 373, 427.